


Oh my god, I killed Hannibal Lecter!

by MDnata



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Chilton actually knows what's going on, Clarice is not a killer, F/M, Hannibal Lecter in coma, Jack and Alana, M/M, at least for the time being, not so much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:41:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25388458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MDnata/pseuds/MDnata
Summary: Clarice Starling comes to ask Will for help, but not with a case. It dawns on Will, that the game he's playing with Hannibal has suddenly taken a very wrong turn and the end might just be nearer than he could ever have anticipated.
Relationships: Hannibal Lecter & Clarice Starling, Molly Graham/Will Graham, Will Graham & Clarice Starling, Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Comments: 14
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ”Come”, said the little starling. ”It’s time to go home.”

  
Will hadn’t heard from Hannibal in ages. That in itself wasn’t anything new - the older man was locked up in a hospital for the criminally insane, not lazying it out somewhere in the Bahamas eating the tourists – but ten months with no news (no letters, no cards, no nothing) was a bit too much for even him to take without getting at least a little suspicious.  
  
Not only that, even Jack had kept his distance. That had to mean something, but Will didn’t really want to read too much into it. Not now. He had too much going on.  
  
The new house he’d bought with Molly was gorgeous, as was the land surrounding it; lots of room for all their dogs and Walter to play in, a river to fish in, woods to not sleepwalk in (hopefully) etc. For once, he was happy with his life.  
  
Worrying about Hannibal did affect his mood though, and not in a good way.  
  
”So, what’s up with you today?” Molly asked one day. They were in the kitchen, just the two of them and Scarlet, their newest rescue dog soon to be given away. She was a kind little thing, Molly’s niece was going to love her so much. Her sister hopefully too. She better.  
  
It was allright to give dogs to little kids as presents, Will thought gloomilly, as long as the actual care part was still properly done by the adults of the family. The kid could grow up with dogs in her life and learn to live with them and care for them along the way, but if they thought she alone would be the one responsible for Scarlet’s well being because the dog was ”hers”, they had another thing coming. Will had met Molly’s sister a couple of times and new she was a good person when it came to animals at least, but you can never be too sure.  
  
”You’ve been awfully quiet. For some quite time too, now that I think about it. I just thought, well… if there’s something you want to talk about, you know that I’m here, right?”  
  
Will glanced at her over his shoulder and gave her the slop-sided smile that he knew she found funny. _You look like one of the dogs when you smile like that, you dumbo_. ”I know”, he said and when Molly came to stand behind him he positioned his arms so that she could wrap her own arms around him without him having to stop working on the food for the dogs.  
  
He’d always made the food himself - even before Hannibal and Hannibal’s somewhat unwanted and more or less unappreciated influence on what was healthy on one’s body and what wasn’t – but nowadays he actually enjoyed his time in the kitchen whereas before it had merely been a necessary stop on the road to keep his little pack well fed and happy (himself too, if he had the time, mostly without the happy factor, though).  
  
And if being in a kitchen reminded him of Hannibal’s white clad back and the quick _chop chop chop_ of the knife that met the cutting board, no one needed to know.  
  
”What is it, then?”  
  
”Jack, actually.”  
  
”Jack Crawford?” Molly asked, surprise in her voice.  
  
Will didn’t know what there was to be surprised about, it’s not like they knew more than one Jack and even the one they knew had a history of being on somewhat regular contact with them.  
  
Okay, on contact with _Will_ , although Molly was usually the one who happened to pick up the phone when the man called so the two had actually managed to converse quite a bit in the past couple of years.  
  
”What about him? Did he call?”  
  
”No, he didn’t”, Will said. ”That’s the problem. He’s never been this good at keeping away. Makes me nervous.”  
  
”Maybe he’s finally respecting you’re wishes to be left alone.”  
  
”Mmh, maybe.”  
  
_That doesn’t sound like Jack Crawford that I know, though, he is not one to let people go. No. This has something to do with You and I shoudn’t want to know what._  
  
He didn’t know what Jack was up to. He didn’t even want to know. But when things started happening a week or so later in the form of a young woman waiting by her car on his driveway, he knew his self-imposed exile was about to meet its end.  
  
”Mr Graham”, the woman greeted him when he was within the hearing distance. ”My name is Clarice Starling. I’m so sorry to have come un-announced, but I didn’t have your number, only this address.”  
  
The closer he got the younger she looked. A student, maybe. In the police force, of that there was no doubt, but then again, who else would be sent knocking on his door?  
  
There was something about her, though, something that draw Will’s attention immediately, not unlike the smell of summer honey courts a bee. They way she held herself possibly, calm and confident. So sure of herself, even at such a young age.  
  
Well, this was a surprise.  
  
”How young were you when you first met Hannibal?”  
  
She smiled and that smile lighted up her whole face. ”I was seven”, she told him. ”But I remember him very well. How did you know?”  
  
”Takes one to know one, I guess.”  
  
_Also, I can see Him in your eyes, little girl. I wonder, whatever did He make of you._  
  
”I’m actually here about something else.”  
  
”The Jack and Jill slasher?” He’d read about him in the papers, of course, the biggest thing after the Tooth Fairy was brought down. There had been a student involved in that case too, he recalled, along with Miriam Lass. Unless Jack was enrolling the whole student body, this girl here might just be the very same student.  
  
_So young, so young_.  
  
The girl nodded in confirmation.  
  
”Yeah, figures. I have to say though, Freddie Lounch is really letting her imagination fly with this one. It’s like she wants to make them kill out of sheere anger.”  
  
”Doctor Chilton was thinking of calling them the Deadly Twin Tormentor but Price said it sounded too much like something out of _How to train your dragon_ so everyone just goes with the one Freddie Lounds made up.”  
  
Will had spent enough time with Walter to know what _How to train your dragon_ was and he couldn’t help but agree with the man on this one.  
  
Chilton, perhaps, didn’t have that great a head for catchy titles for serial killers and mass murderers, but as far as Will was concerned, the man really had managed to land with one that actually mattered and would go down in history books with years to come. _Hannibal the Cannibal, that’s what they’ll call him_. He would have given anything to see Hannibal’s face when the man first heard his new personalised title that so effortlessly replaced the Chesapeake Ripper.  
  
”Did Jack sent you?”  
  
”I heard him talking about coming to talk to you about it and decided to come myself.”  
  
Will allowed her one raised eyebrow. ”Is that so?” he asked. ”To what do I owe this pleasure?”  
  
”I wanted to see you.”  
  
”Ah.”  
  
”And I think we really need your help with this one. By the time Mr Crawford gets his shit together and manages to actually come to talk to you the body count’s gonna be double the amount it is now so, yeah. Here I am.”  
  
”Here you are.”  
  
”So, what do you say?” She didn’t sound exactly hopefull, but there was an urgency in the tone of her voice, like there was something else, still something else. What was he missing? She hadn’t come here just for this, no, that was too easy.  
  
”I’ll think about it”, he said, paying close attention to her reaction.  
  
”That’s pretty much all I can ask for anyway. This isn’t actually your job anymore.”  
  
She was calm and polite and just the right amount of dissapointed. She was good, he could give her that, but not good enough.  
  
”There’s still something you aren’t saying”, Will said just when she was about to enter her car and leave.  
  
She halted, a brunette with blue eyes, a bit like Abigail but mostly not. She had something about her that was purely her own, kindess that perhaps crossed the boundaries of that what was considered proper. Something was wrong and that something made her terrified. ”You are here about Hannibal, after all.”  
  
”Yes, I am”, she said. ”Mr Graham… Will, he’s running out of time.”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued.


	2. Chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the monster is also a man.

  
**Five months earlier**  
  
”Jack, hey, we have a problem..”  
  
A problem, yes, the understatement of the year; this was a catastrophe!  
He was a professional, god damnit, this wasn’t supposed to happen.  
  
Frederic Chilton had had some bad luck over the years. He’d been shot, gutted and laughed at, among other things, not to mention his brief visit behind the wrong side of the bars that he hadn’t forgotten to bring up whenever Jack was getting too big headed for his tastes. But this definetly took the cake.  
  
He was pacing the waiting room, hurried little steps, from one side of the room to the other. He’d tried sitting down and reading but had quickly found out that no, he was not someone who could read old barber shop magazines in the middle of a crisis like his whole career wasn’t about to be washed down the drain in the next couple of hours – he really had to have a word with the idiot who left the magazines there in the first place, though, this was a hospital for the criminally insane for crying out loud!  
  
When Jack finally arrived, Chilton was on him the minute he walked in the room.  
  
”What the actual fuck took you so long?” Had he been meaning to start shouting? Oh, well. ”Don’t you realize how serious this is?”  
  
”I got stuck in traffic”, Jack merely grunted and pushed him away. ”Could you please explain it to me once again? You were so hysterical in the phone I could hardly understand what you were on about.”  
  
”Explain?” Chilton repeated. ”Explain that Hannibal Lecter is behind those damn doors fighting for his wretched life, you want me to explain that? Wha- ” Was the man actually grinning? ”Jesus, you’re really enjoying this aren’t you?”  
  
”Immensely”, Jack chuckled, looking way too pleased with himself. He’d sat himself down on the very same seat Chilton himself tried to warm up a minute or twenty before and even grabbed the same magazine he’d randomly picked up from the table. Now he really looked like someone waiting to get his hair done. Huh. Chilton had always known the man wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box, but this was riddiculous.  
  
”You really don’t get how serious this is?” Chilton asked again, pinching the ridge of his nose with two fingers. ”You can’t just… god, you’re stupid. Did you know that? Stupid with a capital S.”  
  
”You may call me whatever you want”, Jack calmy answered. ”I’m still going to give you a god damn medal if you’ve actually managed to do what I, for one, was beginning to think was impossible.”  
  
”You’re obnoxius.”  
  
”Like I said; call me what you want. What did you do to him anyway? I got the impression you poisoned him or something.”  
  
”Yes, ’cause I’m just that stupid, No, there was this new medicine I wanted to try on him. You know there’s been some real interest on whether he’s actually born with behavioral patterns he has or if it’s something he’s- okay, I can see that you don’t care, I get it, but as his doctor I can’t just-”  
  
”Get to the point, _doctor_ ”, Jack interrupted him.  
  
Chilton was too nervous to even get properly annoyed.  
  
”Well, the thing is, he, ah, reacted pretty badly to it. Medically speaking. One of the orderlies preparing him for transportation back to his cell was quick-witted enough to call assistance when he said he was about to have a seizure. I guess he realized what was going and asked for help but I still don’t get what _actually_ happened.”  
  
”So you did poison him.”  
  
”No I didn’t! It was an allergic reaction, I just don’t… I checked, there was nothing in it that he’s allergic to, and if he dies now because of that, they’re gonna think I did something to him on purpose and it’ll be the witch trials of Baltimore all over again.”  
  
Not that it mattered one way or another – what they thought. If Hannibal died, Chilton was going to have some pretty big problems of his own, and from entirely different direction. Maybe ending up behind bars as a murder suspect might actually be safer for him in the long run.  
  
Jack made a sour face. ”There’s no need to bring that up again”, he said indignantly and returned to his magazine.  
  
_What are you reading that for_? Chilton wondered, trying – and failing, miserably at that – not to bite his fingernails to oblivion. _You don’t even have any hair._  
  
When the nurse finally came through the doors Chilton’d been frantically glaring at for what felt like a life time and when the first words the man said were: ”I’m afraid I have some bad news”, Chilton was ready to die there and then.  
  
”Oh my god”, he moaned. ”I’ve killed Hannibal Lecter!”  
  
”No, it’s not that”, the nurse said quickly enough for Jack not to have time to strap the party hat on. ”He’s alive but he’s not waking up anytime soon.”  
  
”You mean-” Jack started but now it was Chilton’s time to interrupt him.  
  
”He’s in a coma?”  
  
”Yes. It was a bit touch and go there for a while, but now he’s out of any immediate danger. Doctor Rosewood said he’ll propably wake up within the next two or three days.”  
  
”Well, you got what you wanted”, Jack sighed when the nurse had left them to digest the news. ”He’s alive and well.”  
  
”As if you haven’t benefitted from him being alive”, Chilton snapped at him.” Might I remind you who it was who helped your precious little Starling to snatch her very first fairy? Here’s a tip: his name rhymes with cannibal.”  
  
”You’re attempts at being funny are not appreciated”, Jack grunted, finally putting the cursed magazine away. ”And Starling only spoke with him once, you can hardly call that ”helping”.  
  
”You think once wasn’t enough? Do you know Hannibal at all?”  
  
Chilton sometimes wondered at that. Jack and Alana both had this blind spot when it came to Hannibal and what he could do; they only saw the monster.  
  
He saw the monster too, of course he did. Back in the day, when Will had pointed him to it’s direction and told him to fucking look he had and what he’d seen had been as fascinating as it had been terrifying and being in the man’s presence now that he wasn’t hiding his fangs anymore was thrilling to say the least.  
  
But that didn’t stop him from seeing _the man_ too.  
  
It wasn’t the monster side of Hannibal that drew people in, after all, it was the man. And that man could be charming. Sending a young girl like Clarice Starling to him was just asking for trouble and no matter how well prepped she was to meet the beast, that didn’t matter one bit since she wasn’t prepared at all to meet the man. In some circumstances, the man was even more dangerous than the monster.  
  
”Besides, we’re not even on clear waters yet”, he said, ignoring the freezing look Jack was currently sending his way. ”He might still die.”  
  
And if he did…  
  
” _Would_ that be such a lost?”  
  
”Yes, well, if that was to happen, go and ask that same question from Will Graham. I dare you.”  
  
”Will has moved on.”  
  
”If you really think that you’re even stupider that i gave you credit for.” And he’d been saying it a lot during this one conversation they were having. ”Do I have to spell this out for you, so that you understand? They are still playing the game, Jack. And if Hannibal dies here, like this, there’s no telling what Will is going to do.”  
  
There never was, not in situations like these, but even so, Chilton had a pretty good idea on what to do if the worse should come to pass. There really was only one thing he could do.  
  
Run.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't actually have any idea on how coma really works, but this is what I'm going with.


End file.
